Paul Kull with the West Lafayette Street Department empties salt from a bed of a truck Friday the department in West Lafayette. The salt will freeze in the trucks if not unloaded.

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Jeff Yeoman, sleeves rolled up and wearing a work vest, sorted through stacks of bottled soft drinks outside one of his delivery stops last week. Thankfully, he didn't have to drag the pallets through snow and slush this winter.

"I think it's pretty good," said Yeoman of Lafayette as he commented on the mild weather on a winter day when the temperature was 44 degrees by 1 p.m. "As long as there's no snow on the ground, it's easier for us."

Old Man Winter has about five weeks left to account for himself as something other than a nuisance, but so far, his 2012-2013 performance is not impressive. That ...